~ Write as if our lives depend on it.

Category Archives: Nature

Walking through the neighborhood today I was delighted to see strong signs of Spring. There’s no turning back now: the flowers are going to bloom, leaves bud and unfurl. Before we know it, it’ll be all-get-out Spring!

I have no crocuses growing in my yard. Along with snowdrops, they are the first flowers to bloom in this area. I was thinking I’d like to plant some so I can have color and life early in the season. Looking in my backyard to see what’s happening back there I saw something better.

I’m growing dragons!

What’s showing in your yard or neighborhood?

(You know I’m going to have to write about this in a story now, right?
Yeah, you knew that.)

It falls
like a hand over your mouth,Autumn’s hush of colors.The false blossomingof gold into lush orange into faded yellowinto browninto dirt.Fate falls upon leaveswith the clinging of first frost followedwith the finality of Winter’s deepest freeze.The air is choked with their flutteringand falling,this burgeoning of hollow fortune.The crushing as you walk–the ground littered with the wealthof fallen things.

I reblogged a post from Elodie Under Glass, or at least tried to, I’m not sure it worked. What I wanted to share was this: Reader Letter: Random Paper Airplanes because it’s awesome and has everything: Anne Lamott; how to clean your home when you’re not the Clean One; mindset; etymology of “experience” and “expertise”; quotes like “you’ve reached an Age, and you haven’t unlocked the required babies and car achievements for that level”; and gifs. Go read it!

Sharing some photos of the garden. This is the first year I’ll have been here the whole summer. It’s very exciting, things grow! I mean, it’s amazing.

Nasturtiums have edible flowers. They taste peppery and look lovely atop salads. They also help deter animals from eating the strawberries planted behind them.

And here’s a busy busy bee.

I, too, must get busy with the words and the writing.

Enjoy summer (you Northern Hemisphere-ers). Enjoy these pictures of flowers if you don’t have your own to wonder at. Enjoy Elodie’s blog, everyone.

My brain was not cooperating with the whole writing thing today, so I did some gardening instead. Fresh air, soil, getting my hands dirty, nothing to think but be with the plants and worms. Good old physical labor and clean air.

Then I found these:I hope they had a good life in the huge tree that shelters our house and in our yard that we let grow wild last summer. These little aliens now share a flowerbed with Irises and Daffodils, and an assortment of shade tolerant seeds including various Daisies, Foxglove, Poppies, Sweet William, and Blue Pimpernell among others.

It’s only a gargoyle if there’s water running through it.

They and our home are kept safe by our gargoyle:

…and there is.

all curled up

And here’s some spring color, because it’s not all death and dormant seeds:

“If I find within myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

I am actually sitting outside right now and not freezing my arse off or risking electrocution. It’s been coooold and wet – wet I can understand, it is spring after all and rain is what spring is all about. But it doesn’t need to be so cold, and I do mean cold as it’s been ten to twenty degrees below normal temperatures and it’s still freezing at night.

But today blue sky is peeking out between the gauzy layer of cloud. Grackles, cardinals, robins, finches, and other birds are chirping wildly in their cacophonous glory. I think the Osterglocken (literally “Easter bells”, or, you know, daffodils) in our front yard will bloom soon! I had no idea we had daffodils. And there’s a few other things I don’t know what they are yet – maybe hyacinth! Mmm, those smell delicious.

Why am I telling you this? Because it’s glorious. Truly. I’m so excited by Spring’s return. As many other animals clearly are as well. Some much more vocal about it that I am.And I’m telling you this because there is nothing to mention on the writing front. I’ve been unable to write well for a couple weeks now. It sounds a bit like I’m telling my doctor about a health problem I’ve been suffering. And in many ways it feels like it, actually. I get so grumpy when I don’t write… when I don’t write well that is, which is to say with a purpose whose fulfillment I’m actively and markedly working on.

I’m not making any progress!!! Waahhhh. Though I think the catnip seeds I’ve sowed have germinated… which is so cool. But it’s not me or my doing. I’m not germinating, damn it! Fallow. I’m lying fallow and Spring and renewal are flourishing all about. Maybe I should stop whining and enjoy the bounty 🙂 Refill thine vessel.

But I’ve this deadline of this evening for submitting a short story to Wiscon‘s writing workshop, which is a wonderful opportunity to have three or four other speculative writers and a well-published pro critique my work – feedback is huge, people! It is one of the most helpful things. Practice (writewritewrite), of course, readreadread, and get feedback that’s not from your own little head. It’s energizing to get well thought out feedback and criticism. And I’m going to miss getting it (well, this year anyway) on one or two stories I’m working on that could really use the eyes of some intelligent, culturally and socially aware and literate individuals. Especially since there are characters who are PoC and I’ve only purposefully written characters who identify as PoC a handful of times, and none in stories that actually developed into something publishable.

I’ll complain briefly here: my drafts take too damned long to get through, not to mention the rewriting and editing (that’s an eternity within an eternity… okay little strong on the hyperbole); I don’t outline and I don’t feel I can outline without writing the stories to find out where they’re going because in order to think and explore I write and talk, not the other way around….. and I soooooo need to get over myself and this phony-writer syndrome. Because there’s nothing more annoying than listening to someone complain about how they suck and all when a handful of respected individuals who have nothing to gain by complimenting the writer compliment the writer and you know, actually read her work, enjoy it, and publish her. Yeah, I’m that writer right now. Humility is rarely in short supply, if you ask me, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the self-effacing, keeping-myself-down attitude of self-doubt.

I’m going to transplant some violas and get my hands dirty. Have another cup of coffee, and realize that things are as they are right now, and I’ll figure out later this writing thing and this outlining and writing more effectively or efficiently thing… because right now, life is blooming all around me. Right now the sun is shining and the world is alive!

I am not going to work today, folks. Why? Because we here in Madison, WI are in the midst of a blizzard – first of the season! About a foot of wet, heavy snow and more to come! I know it’s heavy as I’ve been occasionally shoveling so as not to break my back doing so all at once after all the snow has all fallen.

Needless to say driving is impossible, so I am not driving a cab today. Our metro buses have cancelled service as well. If a bus can’t drive in the street a Prius sure won’t be able to either. Just saying. Some people get upset that we can’t pick them up regardless of weather. The yellow color on the cab does not imbue it with special physics-busting powers. These are probably the same people that get upset that it takes longer to get to their destination during rush hour traffic. Again, the Prius is pretty awesome (average 45 mpg) but it does not come equipped with hovering ability, so waiting in traffic like all the other non-yellow cars is just how it is.

Sorry about the work-related rant. Thanks for indulging me.

Here are some pretty snow pictures I took last night and some I took an hour ago. Enjoy!

Mosaic of Saturn taken by the spacecraft Cassinifor Image Advisory click on the photo

Accompanying this image released today, Carolyn Porco, Cassini Imaging Team Leader, included this message:

This one is our special gift to you, the people of the world, in this holiday season that brings to a close the year 2012. We fervently hope it serves as a reminder that we humans, though troubled and warlike, are also the dreamers, thinkers, and explorers inhabiting one achingly beautiful planet, yearning for the sublime, and capable of the magnificent. We hope it reminds you to protect our planet with all your might and cherish the life it so naturally sustains.